I started cutting this 12″ Glam Clam quilt waaay back in November last year at the first Thistle Patch Retreat after Phyllis kindly brought over the templates for me – it was part of my drive to use up my hoarded fabric and to make quilts that showed off big prints, so I used my stashed bundle of Picnic by Melody Miller for Cotton + Steel along with my stashed basics bundles that I bought at Quilt Market when they launched in 2014.  I had enough scraps left for a 6″ clam baby quilt, which I’ve been making in Killearn, and probably will be for the next few sessions :o)  It got sewn together over the Christmas holidays then in February it headed off to Cath down at Cumbrian Long Arm Quilters for some amazing designs to be quilted into it, and I got it bound a couple of weeks ago.  Unfortunately, due to the Beast From The East, photos were a bit of a non starter for a couple of weeks, but here you go :o)

I had originally requested 13 different patterns (the total number of clams in the top two rows), and that no two clams touching had the same pattern.  In the end Cath chose 20 patterns in a style I had liked and her husband came up with a random number generator to decide what went where (who says quilting isn’t technical ;o) )  Here’s the best I could do to get close-ups of some of them, given that the thread on the clams was Aurifil’s light grey 2600, and in the border sections was navy:

She also added a wee motif for Jack, as she’s always thought of him as a salty sea dog (sorry, the photo’s a bit wonky as the quilt got a bit bent in transit and I didn’t have an iron in the carpark!)

I had tried to get photos on Saturday at Killearn, but I couldn’t make my quilt holders stand in the rain for a long time, however I got this great photo – I have no idea why Kim and Cathlene were laughing so hard, but I’m glad I caught it :o)

Quilt Stats:

Fabric: Picnic by Melody Miller for Cotton + Steel, Cotton + Steel basics packs in 3 colourways and navy Kona cotton
Thread: Aurifil 2021 for piecing, Aurifil 2600 + navy for quilting
Batting: Warm & Natural Needled Cotton
Size: 102” x 96” approx (Full size in the pattern with the borders left untrimmed)
Quilting Design: selection of pantographs
Quilted By: Cath from Cumbrian Long Arm Quilting
Pattern: Glam Clam by Latifah Saafir, templates available here